JetBlue and Alaska Fight Over Rights to Fly to Havana

JetBlue is surprisingly feisty in this filing, considering airlines ask for and receive extensions all the time. But Alaska is a major competitor of JetBlue’s, so maybe that explains it.

— Brian Sumers

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JetBlue Airways is tweaking rival Alaska Airlines by asking the U.S. government to take away Alaska’s right to fly to Havana from Los Angeles and award it to JetBlue, which would use it to fly from Boston.

The request, made with the U.S. Department of Transportation, came two days after Alaska asked to defer the start date of its new flight — the only one from the West Coast to Cuba — from Nov. 29 to Jan. 5. Alaska told the government it made the “modest request” to give it more time to market the flights.

Generally, though not always, carriers do not object to a delay request from a competitor. But JetBlue on Thursday raised objections, noting that no other U.S. carrier has sought an extension. The U.S. and Cuban governments will permit only 20 daily flights to Havana, and airlines competed vigorously to serve the city. JetBlue won the right to fly to Havana from Fort Lauderdale, New York JFK, and Orlando, but not Boston.

“Every U.S. carrier involved in the Cuba frequency proceeding began the task of starting scheduled Cuba service from the same starting point and faced an identical timeline,” JetBlue said in its objection. “No other carrier is claiming ‘operational’ and commercial challenges as a basis for significantly delaying their start date.”

Alaska spokesman Bobbie Egan said in an email that Alaska is confident the government will approve its request. “As noted in our motion for extension, we believe early January will be more conducive to a successful service launch,” she said. In its filing, Alaska said the holiday season would be a particularly tough time to launch a new Havana route, as most Americans travel for leisure in the period, and “vacation” is not one of the 12 government-sanctioned reasons to visit Cuba.

In its filing, JetBlue suggests Alaska wants to delay the flight because it is concerned it will not perform well. California has a relatively large population of Cuban Americans, but the long length of the flight makes it tricky. And only one other approved Havana route originates from outside the East Coast — United’s once-per-week flight from Houston. Industry insiders tend to think South Florida-Cuba routes will perform best.

“JetBlue and others repeatedly warned that the Los Angeles-Havana route was unlikely to succeed,” JetBlue said.

“A 37-day delay is clearly a commercial decision to not serve a new market over the December holiday season and evidences a lack of preparation and readiness to accept the Department’s award of this scarce resource,” JetBlue added.

JetBlue is likely aware the DOT will give Alaska the extension. But in its filing, it asked the government to award it backup authority, so that if Alaska tries to keep delaying the route or eventually cancels it, JetBlue would be able to step in and add Boston flights.

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